7. Read the book MI in the Elementary Classroom. Pick two activities from the back of the chapters. Implement two of these ideas into your class. Write a report of 250 (+-) words describing your activity.
Activity #1 Novice/Expert Activity (Baum, 1994)
I have a class of 15 3 and 4 year old students who enjoy listening to stories. For my first activity I decided to read a book to the whole class called "The Gruffalo" by Julia Donaldson. They have already heard the story a couple of times before, so they were familiar with the book. After reading, we sat in a big circle and asked some questions about the story like who are the characters, where does the story take place and what happened in the story. After talking about the story, I had 4 working centers prepared for them. In one center, they were supposed to build the setting of the story with wooden blocks. In center number two, they were asked to draw their favorite part of the story. In center number three, they were supposed to prepare a puppet show with printed pictures of the characters. And in center number four, they were asked to create a new ending for the story.
Instead of observing them and sending them to what I think are their strength area, I decided to let the choose what to do. At the beginning I had 5 children in the building center (Cristobal, Santiago F., Santiago Q, Stella and Ariana); 3 students chose the drawing center (Daniela, Veronica, Emilia); 5 students chose the puppet show center (Mikel, Maxi, Triana, Kevin and Daniel) and 2 students chose center number 4 (Belen and Alfonso). They started working on their centers while I monitored, walking around the classroom to help them if they needed it. As time passed, some of them realized that they didn't like the center they chose and asked me if they could change and I let them do it. The new groups were: Center #1 Cristobal, Santiago F., Kevin and Stella Center #2 Daniela, Veronica, Emilia, Santiago Q., and Daniel Center #3 Mikel, Maxi, Triana and Ariana Center #4 Alfonso and Belen Once they tried different centers and stayed in the one they felt comfortable, they started to work faster and more organized. Some of the builders decided to work on their own, two of them decided to work together. The ones who drew, did it by themselves; everyone had their own paper and crayons. The puppet show kids were the ones who needed more help to get organized, because more than one wanted to be the Gruffalo. And the las center were asked how they were going to change the end of the story and drew it. At the end, they presented their work to the rest of their friends.
Activity #2 Movement song. This activity started with all the kids brainstorming about the different movements we can do with our bodies (some of these words were learned as part of the previous unit). They mentioned walk, run, dance, march, play, walk backwards, kick, raise hands, stomp, sit down, stand up, fly, climb, roll, etc. Every time they mentioned a movement, they made it and I took pictures and printed them in the class. After the brainstorming, we stood up in a big circle and we heard the song "Animal Action" by Greg and Steve, were they mention several animals and they have to make their movements. They had to imitate an elephant, a cat, a frog, a bird, a snake and a monkey. When the animal was mentioned in the song, they had to imagine how those animals move, some of them were very creative and started dancing, but 8 students just copied what their friends did. When we finished dancing we sat again and we drew the animals on the board next to their pictures and I asked questions like "how do animals move?" and the students had to connect the animal movement with the movements they mentioned before the activity. ("Elephants stomp their feet" or "monkeys jump") They were able to repeat words for different animals and at the end they were able to describe animal movements using sentences. 6. Post a copy of your Think Tac Toe using a 3 X 3 table that is color coded. Black for Basic, Blue for mid range, Red for higher level thinking. Be sure to use Bloom’s Taxonomy to develop your TTT.
EC3 Think TAC TOE BOARD
Describe and compare two different plants.
Construct a plant model using play dough.
Assemble your favorite plant “model” using construction blocks (big legos)
Assemble a plant “sculpture” using reusable materials from the class.
Assemble a poster and present it in front of the class, where you can find all the parts in a plant.
Draw a flower and all of its parts using construction paper, magic markers and crayons.
Draw in a three-block table, the three steps of the evolution of a plant.
Make a flower using construction paper to tear and glue to a bigger paper.
Explain step by step the process from seed to plant.
Alessia Cuneo, Alexandra Sabal, Deborah Muhlbauer, Veronica Saettone.
5. Comment on possible advantages of having AlphaBet Syndrome. Why might nature have done this? Is there any genetic advantage to any of these special populations.
I started reading some articles on internet in order to get some ideas and I found a reflection that an autistic child could make: "I can't avoid being autistic. It's not my fault. My parents couldn't avoid it either. You can not have autism because being bad raised. So, it's not my parents' fault either. Nobody could avoid my autism. So there's no one I can blame." I've worked with an autistic 4 year old child, and it was not easy. I had a lot of patience with him, I did a lot of research and was very tolerant and open to think of strategies in order to help him. He had no social skills and got wild if we changed his routines. But after working very hard, we created a very strong bond between us. I really think that people with special needs, and different ways of thinking are in this world to make the rest of us be more open minded, tolerant and be aware that we can learn a lot by trying to understand them.
4. Cut and paste the Learning Matrix activity from page 3 on to your page and tell me which Special population you worked on. ADHD
Alessia, Alexandra, Deborah and Veronica
(PLEASE DO NOT ERASE, THIRD TIME WE POST IT)
ADHD
Condition of the brain that makes it difficult for students to control their behavior. Affects an estimated of 4 to 12 percent of all school age children, about 3 times more boys than girls. Multitasking is a way of life for kids these days and this causes them to loose their ability to focus and have more ADHD problems. Misdiagnoses of ADHD can represent have a dozen of other problems.
The student will… -Tune out what doesn’t interest him. -Get lost going from one simple task to another. -His imaginations revs up without warning. -Doesn’t pay attention -Day dream -Have trouble with peers, problems with social cues. -Be Impulsive, they will react before thinking about the consequences for their actions.
- Try to shut down any kind possible distractions. - Make sure a written plan is near the student. - Concentrate your attention on a particular thing. - Be specific in your explanation, make sure the student knows exactly what they need to do. - Give immediate positive feedback, making sure the child knows what they did right. - Look for different alternatives before you use medication. (Relaxation strategies, etc)
3. Tell me on your wiki page the name of the cartoon on the Cartoon Assignment on Page 2 that you worked on.
Peanut butter and Jelly (Debbie and Ale)
2. Comment on your recent learning in our class about multiple intelligence theory or learning styles.
One of the things I've learned in the last two days is the difference between multiple intelligences and learning styles. The first one is how the brain collects the information received, and it can be nurtured. The second one refers to how people learn better by seeing, listening or doing/making.
Something that I knew, but never saw in a class when I was a student is differentiation. I had to prepare an exposition every time I had to research about something and I hated it. I've never been that good at standing in front of people and talk, and It was so hard and stressful that nowadays I still can't do it. So, having the opportunity to show something using your strength area, made it so much easier because it let me express myself in a different way. I think that using this strategies with students in class will help children really internalize what they are learning and succeed.
1. Tell us all 3 to 5 things about you that you would like us all to know about you. This is a written version of the Business card activity. My name is Deborah, but everybody call me Debbie. I'm from Lima and I just turned 30. I work in EC3 with 3 and 4 year old students. I love very young children because they are very innocent and sweet... and I always say that if there would be an EC2 class, I'd be there. I love jigsaw puzzles!!! I got my first jigsaw puzzle when I was 2. I love them so much that my parents used to promise to buy me one if I got good grades at school. I've built 5000 piece puzzles when I was 10 and my mom used to frame them... I also like to read, but that's something I didn't like at school because teachers made me read really boring books at school and I have reading comprehension problems. Now I can chose what I read...and I love it!! MY family is very important to me. I love spending time with friends and people I care about. I love my students!!! My favorite place on earth is the beach, I can spend a lot of time there (summer or winter) just reading, looking and listening to the waves, and looking at the sunset. I like to travel (specially to sunny places). I haven't done it that much, but there are some places I'd like to visit before I die.
7. Read the book MI in the Elementary Classroom. Pick two activities from the back of the chapters. Implement two of these ideas into your class. Write a report of 250 (+-) words describing your activity.
Activity #1 Novice/Expert Activity (Baum, 1994)
I have a class of 15 3 and 4 year old students who enjoy listening to stories.
For my first activity I decided to read a book to the whole class called "The Gruffalo" by Julia Donaldson. They have already heard the story a couple of times before, so they were familiar with the book.
After reading, we sat in a big circle and asked some questions about the story like who are the characters, where does the story take place and what happened in the story.
After talking about the story, I had 4 working centers prepared for them. In one center, they were supposed to build the setting of the story with wooden blocks. In center number two, they were asked to draw their favorite part of the story. In center number three, they were supposed to prepare a puppet show with printed pictures of the characters. And in center number four, they were asked to create a new ending for the story.
Instead of observing them and sending them to what I think are their strength area, I decided to let the choose what to do. At the beginning I had 5 children in the building center (Cristobal, Santiago F., Santiago Q, Stella and Ariana); 3 students chose the drawing center (Daniela, Veronica, Emilia); 5 students chose the puppet show center (Mikel, Maxi, Triana, Kevin and Daniel) and 2 students chose center number 4 (Belen and Alfonso).
They started working on their centers while I monitored, walking around the classroom to help them if they needed it.
As time passed, some of them realized that they didn't like the center they chose and asked me if they could change and I let them do it.
The new groups were:
Center #1 Cristobal, Santiago F., Kevin and Stella
Center #2 Daniela, Veronica, Emilia, Santiago Q., and Daniel
Center #3 Mikel, Maxi, Triana and Ariana
Center #4 Alfonso and Belen
Once they tried different centers and stayed in the one they felt comfortable, they started to work faster and more organized. Some of the builders decided to work on their own, two of them decided to work together. The ones who drew, did it by themselves; everyone had their own paper and crayons.
The puppet show kids were the ones who needed more help to get organized, because more than one wanted to be the Gruffalo. And the las center were asked how they were going to change the end of the story and drew it.
At the end, they presented their work to the rest of their friends.
Activity #2 Movement song.
This activity started with all the kids brainstorming about the different movements we can do with our bodies (some of these words were learned as part of the previous unit). They mentioned walk, run, dance, march, play, walk backwards, kick, raise hands, stomp, sit down, stand up, fly, climb, roll, etc. Every time they mentioned a movement, they made it and I took pictures and printed them in the class.
After the brainstorming, we stood up in a big circle and we heard the song "Animal Action" by Greg and Steve, were they mention several animals and they have to make their movements. They had to imitate an elephant, a cat, a frog, a bird, a snake and a monkey.
When the animal was mentioned in the song, they had to imagine how those animals move, some of them were very creative and started dancing, but 8 students just copied what their friends did.
When we finished dancing we sat again and we drew the animals on the board next to their pictures and I asked questions like "how do animals move?" and the students had to connect the animal movement with the movements they mentioned before the activity. ("Elephants stomp their feet" or "monkeys jump") They were able to repeat words for different animals and at the end they were able to describe animal movements using sentences.
6. Post a copy of your Think Tac Toe using a 3 X 3 table that is color coded. Black for Basic, Blue for mid range, Red for higher level thinking. Be sure to use Bloom’s Taxonomy to develop your TTT.
5. Comment on possible advantages of having AlphaBet Syndrome. Why might nature have done this? Is there any genetic advantage to any of these special populations.
I started reading some articles on internet in order to get some ideas and I found a reflection that an autistic child could make:
"I can't avoid being autistic. It's not my fault. My parents couldn't avoid it either. You can not have autism because being bad raised. So, it's not my parents' fault either. Nobody could avoid my autism. So there's no one I can blame."
I've worked with an autistic 4 year old child, and it was not easy. I had a lot of patience with him, I did a lot of research and was very tolerant and open to think of strategies in order to help him. He had no social skills and got wild if we changed his routines. But after working very hard, we created a very strong bond between us.
I really think that people with special needs, and different ways of thinking are in this world to make the rest of us be more open minded, tolerant and be aware that we can learn a lot by trying to understand them.
4. Cut and paste the Learning Matrix activity from page 3 on to your page and tell me which Special population you worked on.
ADHD
(PLEASE DO NOT ERASE, THIRD TIME WE POST IT)
Affects an estimated of 4 to 12 percent of all school age children, about 3 times more boys than girls.
Multitasking is a way of life for kids these days and this causes them to loose their ability to focus and have more ADHD problems.
Misdiagnoses of ADHD can represent have a dozen of other problems.
-Tune out what doesn’t interest him.
-Get lost going from one simple task to another.
-His imaginations revs up without warning.
-Doesn’t pay attention
-Day dream
-Have trouble with peers, problems with social cues.
-Be Impulsive, they will react before thinking about the consequences for their actions.
- Make sure a written plan is near the student.
- Concentrate your attention on a particular thing.
- Be specific in your explanation, make sure the student knows exactly what they need to do.
- Give immediate positive feedback, making sure the child knows what they did right.
- Look for different alternatives before you use medication. (Relaxation strategies, etc)
3. Tell me on your wiki page the name of the cartoon on the Cartoon Assignment on Page 2 that you worked on.
Peanut butter and Jelly (Debbie and Ale)
2. Comment on your recent learning in our class about multiple intelligence theory or learning styles.
One of the things I've learned in the last two days is the difference between multiple intelligences and learning styles. The first one is how the brain collects the information received, and it can be nurtured. The second one refers to how people learn better by seeing, listening or doing/making.
Something that I knew, but never saw in a class when I was a student is differentiation. I had to prepare an exposition every time I had to research about something and I hated it. I've never been that good at standing in front of people and talk, and It was so hard and stressful that nowadays I still can't do it. So, having the opportunity to show something using your strength area, made it so much easier because it let me express myself in a different way. I think that using this strategies with students in class will help children really internalize what they are learning and succeed.
1. Tell us all 3 to 5 things about you that you would like us all to know about you. This is a written version of the Business card activity.
My name is Deborah, but everybody call me Debbie. I'm from Lima and I just turned 30.
I work in EC3 with 3 and 4 year old students. I love very young children because they are very innocent and sweet... and I always say that if there would be an EC2 class, I'd be there.
I love jigsaw puzzles!!! I got my first jigsaw puzzle when I was 2. I love them so much that my parents used to promise to buy me one if I got good grades at school. I've built 5000 piece puzzles when I was 10 and my mom used to frame them...
I also like to read, but that's something I didn't like at school because teachers made me read really boring books at school and I have reading comprehension problems. Now I can chose what I read...and I love it!!
MY family is very important to me. I love spending time with friends and people I care about. I love my students!!!
My favorite place on earth is the beach, I can spend a lot of time there (summer or winter) just reading, looking and listening to the waves, and looking at the sunset.
I like to travel (specially to sunny places). I haven't done it that much, but there are some places I'd like to visit before I die.